Bill Drake, born Philip
Yarbrough, grew up in Donalsonville, Georgia and began his radio career at WMGR
in Bainbridge, while in high school. He went to college on a basketball
scholarship at Georgia Southern in Statesboro and worked at WWNS. In the late
1950’s he moved to Atlanta and worked at WAKE, as a Disc Jockey. His name was
changed to Drake because the station wanted a name that rhymed with the call
letters. He later became Program Director of the station. WAKE was hugely
successful and in 1961 Bartell Broadcasting transferred him to KYA, their San
Francisco station, which he programmed. KYA also became number one.

In 1962, after KYA had been
sold, he was contacted by Gene Chenault, owner of KYNO in Fresno, California,
who offered him a two station deal including KSTN in Stockton, which was owned
by a friend of Chenault’s. Both stations quickly became number one, with
KYNO getting an incredible average share of 52% of the audience from 6am to
midnight. Obviously, more than all 17 other radio stations combined.
Drake and Chenault then formed Drake-Chenault Enterprises, Inc. .

In 1964 they went to KGB in San
Diego. Drake took KGB from 14th to 1st and an
average share of 21.8 in three months. Willett Brown, who owned KGB, had
an old college friend, Tom O’Neal, who was Chairman of the Board of General
Tire, which owned RKO General Broadcasting. Willett, who was also on the
Board of Directors (and one of General Tires biggest stockholders) told O’Neal
about his San Diego station. O’Neal flew out to Los Angeles, hired Drake-Chenault
and pulled KHJ out of the RKO Broadcast Division to prevent any possible
corporate interference. KHJ was called “BOSS
RADIO” and was promoted as the “MUCH MORE MUSIC” station. It
too was #1 in a matter of months.

Next, in 1966, was RKO’s San
Francisco station KFRC. It also went #1 in a matter of months, knocking
off KYA which Drake had programmed four years earlier. At that point,
Drake was given all of the other RKO radio stations, which consisted of WRKO in
Boston, WOR-FM New York, CKLW Windsor/Detroit, and WHBQ in Memphis. All
had incredible ratings and revenue success. Drake was featured in numerous
mainstream magazines articles including Time, Newsweek, True, Look,
Entertainment World, and many other publications.

By the late 60’s and early 70’s
Drake-Chenault had become a massive organization offering Sales and Programming
Consulting Services, including the famous Johnny Mann jingles and totally
automated packages in six different formats, with over 350 full time radio
stations.

The Drake-Chenault Special
Features Division won numerous awards and included the widely acclaimed 52 hour
radio special “The History of Rock and Roll”, which Drake conceived in 1969 and
aired on all the RKO stations. A re-written and updated version in 1978
was narrated by Drake and has been aired on over 400 radio stations.

Drake sold his interest in
Drake-Chenault in 1983. He and Chenault had been partners for 21 years.
Drake-Chenault eventually dissolved in the mid 1980’s, but their Radio Specials
are still available from a variety of sources.

Bill Drake passed away November
29, 2008 in Boss Angeles.

Click To see DrakeChenaultBrochure

Bill Drake discussing production
of The History of Rock and Roll

with Gray Theroux and Mark
Ford

Courtesy of Bill Tabb for the exclusive
use of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame

Click to enlarge

Click
to listen

Life Celebration
program and audio tribute courtesy of Jhani Kaye

The Georgia Radio Hall Of
Fame is a Georgia non profit corporation and
a 501 (c) (3) organization